I shall open with this post by J.C. Parets , who offers a more bullish outlook for markets based on Dow Theory. I would be more cautious, as while buyers have controlled markets over the past four days, all that has done is push indices back into prior trading ranges. We are also in the Thanksgiving period, where volumes fall and junior traders control the desks. The real business returns on Monday. In the case of Dow Theory, the context of the improvement looks to be tied to the relative relationship between the Dow Transports and the Dow Industrials and a potential dead-cat bounce off the test of the 2020 low. A rise in this relationship should be bullish for markets, but this relationship has been in freefall since 2023 as Transports struggled to match the gains of the Dow Industral average. I'm not sure we have a confirmed breakout in the Transports, and momentum (red circle) has remained in the bearish camp despite the rally in Transports. A confirmed breakout in the Trasnp...

Interesting divergence at play in markets. Indices attempted to recover Thursday's losses to varying degress of success, but Bitcoin was excluded from this party. The weakest index was the Russell 2000, but Friday's buying surge has pushed it towards a relative performance advantage against peer Nasdaq and S&P indices. Technicals are still net negative and the index still trades below support, but Friday's buying registered as accumulation. The real test won't come until it hits declining resistance.

The pre-market optimism didn't last long, but when markets are coming off an extended high it's hard for buyers to return there, even off the back of 'good news'. The Russell 2000 ($IWM) opened bang on resistance at $237, and then it was all down from there. Volume surged in confirmed distribution, leaving the 200-day MA as the next logical support level.

The early November bounce triggered from tests of 50-day MAs is starting to fade. Many indices are actually trading below the start of that bounce, leaving a large area of overhead supply. While indices are struggling below the band of September-November trading, it will leave a large area of overhead supply when buyers make their return. The Russell 2000 ($IWM) finished with an accumulation day that returned On-Balance-Volumme back to a 'buy' signal after turning net bearish yesterday. Watch for a test of converged resistance of the declining trendline and $237 resistance.

The picture perfect bounce off 50-day MAs is now encountering the reality of doubtful stock holders. The Russell 2000 ($IWM) is important in this regard because Small Caps drive market leadership, and we are not seeing this as relative performance to peer indices continues to deterioriate. The Russell 2000 has returned to a net bearish technical picture, but more importantly, the index has broken the bullish rising trendline. It hasn't yet undercut the lows of the trendline test, but today's solid red candlestick on confirmed distribution is one opening up for a test of the 200-day MA.

We are seeing a technical bounce at moving average support, but how its evolving is subject to intrepration. On the bullish side, we have the Dow Industrial Average making a new closing high (but not absolute high), while bears have staged an aggressive attack against Bitcoin at its 20-day MA. It's not great that tech-bro loving Bitcoin is taking hit on what looked to be a workable low, and its left to defensive (old-timer) Dow Industrials to lead the bullish charge. The one to watch is Bitcoin. A 3% loss on the day is not great, particularly for an asset that has acted all "grown up" since the days of its wild swings. It was notable it reversed from its 20-day MA in what looked like an algo-driven short attack. If it loses psychological support of $100K, then it will likely take tech and semiconductor indices down with it. The lack of Tech leadership from the likes of Elon Musk, Mark Zukerberg and now, Bill Gates, just shows how money can't buy smarts. Unfortunat...

If bulls are calling the shots then I will be expecting next week to deliver a solid bounce as lead indices enjoyed strong accumulation, at 50-day MAs, on bullish candlesticks; a strong trifecta to work off. The Russell 2000 ($IWM) is additionally showing support at converged trendline and the low of the early October big red candlestick. Technicals are net negative, although stochastics aren't fully oversold, which might be the weakest thing you can say about a bounce.